Drama is the prevailing order in the Chicago Public League, where the only thing wholly predictable is how unpredictable events are likely to play out.

On Wednesday Lane performed the ultimate leap, destroying Hubbard 10-2 in the final Premier Division game of the season and took the league title after Sullivan posted a stunning upset of league-leader Washington.

The Patriots’ one-point lead on the Indians was null and void. Lane defended its conference title. Andrew Ricks only looked forward. “It’s a great honor, but the city tournament is what really matters,” he said.

In Chicago Public League soccer, the city tournament is the honor by which everything else is judged, even to some extent state tournament success. Unlike the girls, where only a handful of programs have a realistic shot at reaching the Final Four, the boys bracket is truly an open and competitive tournament.

Last year’s tournament was one of the greatest in city history, compelling for what happened on and off the field. The tournament was staged under the looming threat of a Chicago teachers’ strike. An abbreviated single-elimination bracket was put into place.

Lane won its second city title in the last three years, prevailing in the shootout after Taft star senior keeper Patrick Mieczkowski floated from his end to the Indians’ box and somehow directed a short ball into the back of the net in the 80th minute.

About an hour after the Lane victory, the Chicago Teachers Union ratified an 11th hour deal to avoid a work stoppage. The games never stopped.

The tourney is back to a 24-team pool play opening round before its conclusion with an eight-team knockout bracket.

“I think we had the toughest draw,” Ricks said.

Lane is the top seed of the 24-teams, which are broken up into eight pools. Each group plays a round-robin schedule, and he winner makes the quarterfinals. There are no overtime games in group play.

Lane (8-4-2, 4-1-2 Premier) is shooting for history.

“As far as we can tell nobody in the modern era of the city tournament has won it two consecutive years,” Ricks said.

The Indians are heading into the tournament the right way --they've scored 15 goals in their last two games.

Brandon Rivera, a gifted midfielder, is fully healthy after missing nearly four games with a foot injury. He scored three-consecutive goals in the first half in the Hubbard game.

“I would not want to play us right now,” Ricks said. “After 10 games I didn’t know who our starters were and what our formation was. Now we know. I know Kelly is struggling this year, but we have never beat them 5-0 like we did (last Monday). Against Hubbard, I don’t like to run up the score. It was a four-goal differential with 20 minutes and the bench guys I brought in were hungry.

“We were just on.”

In the group play alignment, the eight Premier teams are put in with the First Division team that finished in inverse order. So the Indians, who finished no. 1 in Premier, are in with the no. 8-seed from First Division, Prosser. The third entrant is a blind draw. Lane opens the tournament Monday at Jones.

Premier teams are not destined to reach the quarterfinal round. Last year First Division Taft and Second Division Soto (then called UNO Soccer) gained the semifinals with Premier teams Lane and Kelly. Two years ago, the city final pitted two First Division teams, Prosser and Hubbard.

“There is a lot of parity in the city,” Young coach Ian McCarthy said. “When we won it in 2009 we were coming out of the First Division. With boys soccer in the city you never know, but I like our chances right now.”

The Dolphins host Payton at McKinley Park on Monday in their first tournament game. Like Lane, Young is trending in the right direction. The Dolphins are 8-1-2 in their last 11 games.

“I feel we have a good chance, especially to get out of group play and hopefully get a good quarterfinal,” said Young senior midfielder Josue Espinoza, who is a, big, powerful and physical presence.

After enduring a terrible scoring drought at the start of the season, Young has become more fluid and aggressive in its attack.

Shifted to forward from the midfield, senior Evan Wimberly has emerged as a playmaker and skilled scorer. The Dolphins (9-4-3) have been pushing toward this moment for a long time.

“The last couple of years we took our lumps,” McCarthy said. “We knew that we were playing younger guys quite a bit to give them that experience. We have a very talented sophomore group right now, and they are getting that experience. Some of the mistakes they make are the same ones our seniors made two years ago. It is going to be interesting to see them in the future coming into bloom.”

Taft (9-5-3) is sky high after beating Lincoln Park 3-1 on Thursday to clinch the First Division and secure its repatriation to the Premier Division. The Eagles have experienced a tumultuous year, filled with electric moments and a four-game losing streak at the PepsiCo Showdown that dulled their luster.

Now the team is riding a five-game winning streak.

“I am very excited,” said senior forward Patrick Knap, the team’s leading scorer. “I think we can go all the way. I think we have a great shot. We have an amazing team. We have amazing chemistry. I think now it’s mainly mental. We just have to focus. We can’t get too cocky. From here on out we just have to take it game by game.”

Two other 2016 semifinalists join Taft in Pool H. Soto was the blind draw. Premier Dvision member will have to overcome an injury to its best player -- senior forward Stiven Gonzalez was lost to a broken collarbone suffered in the Young game last week.

Taft is ready.

“We have won five in a row,” Taft coach Jeff Lucca said. “Last year coming into the tournament I think we’d won four or five in a row. We just got hot. We started scoring. As a team they have just jelled. Pepsi was really hard for us.

“We lost four games. We lost a few players. Two guys quit. We were at a crossroads. We had a meeting, and we sat them down. Since that day, we’ve done a lot less practicing, a lot of more talking and hanging out. On the field they pick each other up.”

Solorio (10-5-4) is the fourth-seed and opens play Tuesday at Northside. The Sun Warriors are the hardest team to figure. Ricks called them the best team they played in the league.

The group has talent and skill mixed up with precocious underclassmen, which probably accounts for the up-and-down play. Sophomore midfielder Alex Sanchez is already one of the best players in the city. David Diaz and Jose Solis are also players to watch.

The stage is set.

“The privilege of playing in the tournament is the pressure,” Ricks said. “It’s what makes it such a great experience.”